Animorphs: The Time
by Annie-morphs
Summary: The Yeerks have found a time traveling machine.They plan to destroy the 'Andalite bandits'.What will the Animorphs do? Steal it, then what? It sends them on an unpredictable adventure of time.Many things can go wrong... Rated T to be safe on battle scenes
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: Animorphs: The Time  
**Author**: Annie-morphs  
**Rating**: T  
**Genre(s)**: Adventure/General  
**Summary**: The Yeerks have found a time traveling machine. They plan to destroy the 'Andalite bandits'. What will the Animorphs do? Steal it, then what? It sends them on an unpredictable adventure of time.Many things can go wrong... Rated T to be safe on battle scenes  
**Warning(s)**: There may be OOC ahead, please beware of this. Also, there will be some action scenes. I try not to make it too bloody.  
**Disclaimer**: I don't own any of these characters, they all belong to K.A Applegate. The time device is mine though. :D Along with the plot, but that's it.

**Notes**: My very first action/adventure story. And my second fanfiction on Animorphs. **Also, because fan fiction won't let me use those carets, I replaced them with "/"s.**

**Animorphs: The Time  
Chapter One**

**Jake: **

I woke up with the birds tweeting loudly outside my window. I grumbled, "Great. Another day of school." Then, "CRAP! I forgot to do my math homework!" I scrambled out of bed, quickly getting ready for school, in hope of getting answers off of Cassie.

Grabbing my backpack, I went out the door.

My neighbor smiled at me. She was watering her rose bushes, "Good morning, Jake. Off to school?"

I nodded in a hurry, "'Morning. Yeah. Bye!" We still weren't sure if she was a Controller or not. We decided that it was best to leave it like that. If she was a Controller, we'll find out when it was crucial to know. It'll just make us paranoid if we were to spy on everyone just to check if they were Controllers. Immoral too.

I ran the rest of the way to school.

When I arrived, Cassie and Rachel were just walking up the stairs to the main entrance doors of the school.

I called, "Cassie!"

She turned. Naturally, she was in her overalls and oversized boots.

"Yeah?" she asked.

I rested my hands on my knees. "Did you do your math homework? Can I copy your answers?"

She flipped through her binder and pulled out a worksheet, "Here. Give it back after lunch. That's when I have math."

I gave a nod and took it, "Thanks."

We entered the hallways and Rachel asked, "Why didn't you do it? You had lots of time. Just yesterday, when Cassie asked if you could come over to her barn, you said that you were about to head over to Marco's place for video games. Apparently, video games are more important than girlfriends now, eh?"

I ignored the girlfriend and video game remark. "I didn't have time." I took a glance around before saying, "Besides, didn't we have that mission yesterday? Or was it the day before that...or the one after that? Augh, I'm losing my memory. No wonder I forgot to do my math homework."

Cassie smiled sympathetically at me, "It happens to everyone, Jake."

"Mission? What mission?" Rachel asked. "Unless, of course, going to the mall was a mission."

Marco rounded the corner. "Looks like someone's losing their memory."

"That makes two of us.," I smiled.

"Three," Marco corrected, "Hey Xena, did you do your English essay? I need a prompt. I totally forgot it was due today."

Rachel rolled her eyes, "Idiot." She took out her notebook and passed it to Marco, "Be sure to return it during second passing. I'll be blaming you if we both get incompletes."

"No worries."

"Why doesn't that make me feel any better?"

A voice appared in our heads before Marco could tease back. /Jake, everyone. I have news.\

I glanced out the nearest window. A red-tailed hawk soared in circles in the sky. Tobias.

He continued. /The Yeerks. They're up to something. I was just flying over the constuction site last night. It looks like they've found something. I heard something about it being very important and that if Visser Three succeeds he, along everyone who helped him, will be promoted.\

_This wasn't good._ I took a glance at my friends. They all had disturbed faces. I instructed, "Cassie's barn, afterschool."

The bell rang soon after. We parted.

In science, my teacher was lecturing when Tobias spoke to me again. This time, in private thoughtspeak. /Jake, I'm not sure if I should be telling you this, but it seems like I don't have much of a choice since it's a bit important. Tom was there. Along with Principal Chapman, the librarian, the post office lady, and a whole lot of other people. They all belong to large societies. I think this is something big to get everyone infested.\

Tobias lost me as soon as he mentioned Tom. _My brother was in on this? _I frowned down at my empty page of notes.

"Jake? Jake! JAKE!" My teacher called sternly, "Jake, pay attention. Take notes, this will be on a test."

_Perfect. Another test. Just what I needed._ Then again, a test is minor compared to Yeerks taking over Earth. It's funny when you start thinking about minor things when there are bigger things at stake here.

Mr. Science started talking about time travel and how it was impossible. It caught my attention.

"Going back in time, or through time, is impossible. At least for now. Scientist haven't dicovered a way to create a time machine. It's highly complicated. Going back in time would mean warping dimensions and altering reality, along with changing the present and future. Like all those science-fiction movies, time travel is probably very, very risky. It's possible for people not to be born if someone messes around with the past. That was a very good question, Nancy, but lets get back to my lecture..."

_Going through time?_ Everyone wishes to go through time to change the present somewhere along their lives. The Animorphs that's for sure. Change the day where we walked through the construction site. We wouldn't be in this mess of morphing animals and alien invasions.

**Cassie:**

Once again, everyone was gathered at my barn. We all still had our bags with us, taking no time to take a trip home to drop them off. We knew this was big if Tobias notified us first thing in the morning. Ax was in human form since my parents were home. Marco and Jake sat in separate hay piles. Rachel combed a horse while I treated a possum that had been mistreated by a bunch of school boys. Tobias was perched high on a wooden plank.

"Tell us more about what you saw at the construction site." Jake said.

The construction site. The place where Elfangor crashed and died. The place where our lives changed forever. The mentioning of the construction site was probably another reason we found this meeting urgent.

Tobias replied. /Like I said earlier, it was like they found something. Something deep underground. They have this secret entrance hidden somewhere. It couldn't be seen from the sky so I had to land and spy on them. I could hardly see anything, but it was like a tunnel heading underground. The tunnel was like a steel cylinder, and it opened and closed at the front opening. The back opening couldn't be seen, it was deep in the ground. The opening that could be seen had a...a sensor pad of some sort in front of it, buried in the ground. The Controllers had to do a tap dance, or something that looked a lot like a tap dance, on it to make the tunnel open up. When I first saw it, I thought the Yeerks cracked. It was silly and strange.\

Jake thought aloud, "What do you think they found?"

/I think they mentioned something about time.\

Marco suggested, "Time travel?"

Jake shrugged, "My science teacher was talking about time travel today. Someone asked about it and he answered. He said it's impossible."

I placed the possum back into the cage, giving my full attention to the conversation. It seemed to be getting more serious each second.

Ax spoke through his human lips, "I believe. Buh-leeve. Ba-leave. Beeeeee-lieve. I believe there was news going around on the Andalite planet that there had been two scientists that created a time travelling machine. Mah-cheen. Perhaps when my brother crash landed on Earth, he had the machine with him? Or perhaps there were Andalites earlier than him that arrived on Earth."

"Maybe they had to leave the machine there to hide it, but ended up not getting it back?" Rachel guessed.

Jake nodded, "It's possible. Either way, we have to investigate. Tobias, can you show us where?"

/Of course.\

We went to our bird morphs.

Feather sprouted across my body as I shrunk. I felt my nose and mouth jut out to form a hard beak. My arms turned into wings and my toes fused together to form three talons on each foot. I was osprey and I yearned to take flight.

/Ready?\ Jake asked.

We took off, out of the barn and into the sky.

/The thermals are nice today.\ Tobias noted. /Follow me.\ He veered to the right and started to ride a warm air current to gain altitude. We followed his lead, making sure there was a good amount of space between us. It's a dangerous thing if our neighborhood spots a strange group of birds flying together instead of fighting or eating each other. Especially if the ones that saw us were Controllers.

Soon, we were in the familiar area of the construction site. We started to descend slowly.

/Hold on!/ Tobias said. /There's a Controller. He's gonna go in.\

/Tobias, stay out here and keep watch.\ Jake ordered /Everyone else, fly morphs. We're going in. Hurry.\

We hid and demorphed, then remorphed to flies.

_Plooop. Plooop._ Two balloons erupted on my eyes to form big fly eyes. I looked like Bug-Girl. A tube sprouted from my mouth and I started shrinking even more than I did when I went osprey. I formed another pair of arms. Or legs, however you looked at it. And I got antennaes. Transparent wings grew from my backs. Morphing was never pretty. I felt sick but glad that I didn't have a human mouth to barf out of.

Soon, everyone was done morphing and we were a bunch of flies being watched by a red-tailed hawk.

Tobias instructed. /Okay, keep going forward. Ah, wait. Marco you're going too far right. Turn a little to the left. Alright, keep going go towards the darkness.\

Through the multiple sections of my fly eyes, I went towards the darkness. I saw a human right in front of what should be the tunnel. He was jumping around on the sensor pad buried in the ground.

Marco thought-laughed into our minds. /Well, now I see why Tobias thought the Yeerks cracked. That's a ridiculous dance.\

The entrance hissed open.

/In after him.\ Jake said. He flew and landed on the sleeve of the Controller. We followed suit, on other parts of his clothing – no need to alert him by letting him spot a swarm of flies taking a ride on him.

Inside, it was very cold and dark. The Controller was walking. He was descending stairs. The tunnel looked small on the outside, small enough to need to crawl through, but inside it was large enough to hold stairs. I didn't bother to think about it. I'll only end up with a headache and no logical answer.

After a few minutes, light appeared.

Marco couldn't resist to say. /Walk into the light...\ I imagined everyone rolling their eyes. I rolled mine in my mind.

When the Controller entered a large, spacey room, we flew off of him. Landing on the walls, we took a look around. It looked a lot like a machinery room. Very metallic and noisy. The wall was rumbling.

"Did anyone see you?" a voice said. A man's voice.

"No, Visser Three."

/Visser Three!\ Rachel hissed. /He's here? In human form? Let's get him!\

"Good. I'll have your head if someone did. Especially if it were the Andalite bandits. The secrecy of this mission is crucial. The Andalites must not find out. If they did they will, with no doubt, try to ruin it for me."

/Too late for that.\ Marco murmured.

"Now, " continued the Visser, "Is everything ready?"

"Yessir. I believe it is. But please be aware that you may not be able to return to the present if something goes wrong." The Controller said.

/Time travel.\ Ax concluded.

"Yes, I'm completely aware of that! If I wasn't aware would I be standing here so confident? I'm willing to take the chance of not being able to return. If it is to get rid of the Andalite bandits once and for all, I'm willing. If I am not to return, I will be sure to take the honor of ridding the hindrance called the Andalite bandits. The people after me shall then have no trouble with taking over this planet. Now, let me go."

"Okay, Visser." The voice trembled slightly.

Visser Three walked off.

/After him!\ Jake ordered. /We have to find out where the machine is. Then we steal it.\

/What do you think he's planning to do?\ I asked.

/Go back in time and destroy us, probably. Meet us at the construction site even before we get to run away. Kill us./ Rachel guessed dryly.

Marco said. /I don't even want to know. I don't want to find out. I don't even want to think about it. Lets get this thing before it gets dangerous.\

/I agree with Marco.\ Ax noted, dutifully.

The Visser walked through a dimly lit corridor. I could hear, well in the fly's way of hearing, his shoes on the ground and the rumbling from the machinery room grow dull. I felt a strong woosh of air as he made a turn.

/Geez.\ Marco remarked. /It's like standing in front of a hurricane.\

I felt the wind stop. The Visser stood in front of a steel door. He glanced left and right. I saw a fly hanging onto a strand of hair as he did so. Then he typed in a code into the key pad. I couldn't see a single number. These fly eyes are horrible.

The door swung open and he walked in. The room was huge, but it was very empty. The only thing in it was the Visser, us, some wooden boxes, and a device in a tiny dome. The door swung shut behind us. I just noticed that there were no air vents or windows. So did Jake.

/Crap. Is there any other exit?\ He asked.

A pause before Ax answered. /No, Prince Jake.\

Rachel thought. /Think we got enough fire power to break down that door?\

/We can try.\ Jake answered.

The Visser stepped forward, then stopped to press a button, like he nearly forgot. Lasers appeared, stretching from one side of the room to the other. Then he pressed another and they disappeared.

/Paranoid much?\ Marco said rather weakly. If the Visser had forgotten, we would have been fried along with him.

Then he started walking toward the device. I felt shifting on his skin. Then on his clothes. They started stretching and shredding.

/He's demorphing!\ I alerted.

/Off! OFF! Get off!\ Jake ordered. /If those stalk eyes see us, we're dead!\

We took off just when stalk eyes sprouted from the top of his head. Andalite eyes could rotate and spot us in an instant if we were still on him, but they weren't nearly as strong as hawk eyes so we should be relatively safe at a distance. We buzzed in separate circles, trying not to be seen, but still keeping an eye on what the Visser was doing. Easier said than done. My heart hammered in my ribs, hoping the Visser wouldn't catch sight of one of us.

The Andalite stepped toward the small glass dome sitting on a counter top. He had a card in his hand, which he slid into a slot. The dome slid off, disappearing into a curved slit of the counter top. He picked up the device and said /Finally, the time has come.\

Marco joked. /Translation: Hello there, my precioussssssssss...\ He does that often. Joke during stressful times. Marco that is, not the Visser. ...And it seems like his jokes are rubbing off on me.

/Time to morph again.\ Jake said. I sensed a bit of tiredness as he continued. /Ax, demorph first. We need a distraction. Everyone else, battle morphs behind the boxes. Try to remain as small as possible until you're finished morphing.\

Ax waited as we flew to the wooden boxes that sat in the back, past the counter where the device used to sit. Landing on the ground, we all demorphed. Crouching, laying on our bellies, and kneeling to remain hidden because we were now human. Then we all morphed our battle morphs. Ax started to demorph to Andalite.

Jake sprouted orange fur, striped with black. Rachel's body started to be covered in brown fur. I could tell she was trying her hardest to remain small. She started looking like a small, cute cub growing bit by bit. Marco's face began to get leathery and furry at the same time. He was going gorilla. Me? I was going wolf.

/ANDALITE!\ Visser hissed, filled with dreadful hatred.

/Visser Three.\ Ax hissed back with equal hatred. They both wanted each other dead.

Dark gray fur rippled across my body, branching out to my legs and arms.

I heard the clashing of tail blades, the stepping of hooves, the wooshes in the air, the thought-grunts being sent to our heads.

My mouth and nose jutted out to form a snout, tipped with a wet nose. I felt human teeth turn into sharp ones.

I heard the sickening sound of blade slicing through fur and skin. _Please be careful, Ax._

My knees reversed while a tail sprouted from my behind. Fingers and toes fused together to form paws.

Rachel finally started gaining her full size. She shot up towards the ceiling, turning into a gigantic beast. A moment later, she charged into battle to help Ax.

Then paws started to grow claws for gripping and defense. Soon, I was done and ready.

I dashed out from behind our hiding, followed closely by a lumbering gorilla and a strong tiger. I felt the killer insinct of the wolf, wanting to kill anything threatening it. That would be the Visser.

I felt a growl grow in my throat.

Jake ordered. /Ax! Enough, we got it. Get the device quickly. Then we're out. Rachel, Marco, tear down that door. Me and Cassie will fight this off.\

I reached the Visser. He swiped his tail at me. With quick wolf reflexes, I dodged it and lunged to take a bite out of him. Jake came, with a roar escaping his tiger mouth. He slashed his huge paws at the Visser's arms. Andalite arms are weak, making the Visser drop the device he was holding. It landed on my snout and I tossed it to Ax who caught it. He carried his Andalite hooves away, along with the device.

/NO!!\ The Visser roared, trying to gallop after him. Jake and I quickly blocked his path and snarled nastily.

His Andalite eyes burned with intent to kill. /You won't get away with this, Andalites!/

We felt the room shatter and rumble. Marco and Rachel were on their jobs.

**Author's Note: **Review please! I hope you like this. It's my first action/adventure fic! Reviews are welcome to point out any grammar/spelling mistakes I might have made. Constructive critism is always welcomed too.


	2. Chapter 2

**Animorphs: The Time  
Chapter Two**

_Previously:_

_Cassie:_

_...__I reached the Visser. He swiped his tail at me. With quick wolf reflexes, I dodged it and lunged to take a bite out of him. Jake came, with a roar escaping his tiger mouth. He slashed his huge paws at the Visser's arms. Andalite arms are weak, making the Visser drop the device he was holding. It landed on my snout and I tossed it to Ax who caught it. He carried his Andalite hooves away, along with the device._

_/NO!!\ The Visser roared, trying to gallop after him. Jake and I quickly blocked his path and snarled nastily._

_His Andalite eyes burned with intent to kill. /You won't get away with this, Andalites!\_

_We felt the room shatter and rumble. Marco and Rachel were on their jobs..._

**Rachel:**

I head butted the door. The bear in me hardly felt a thing. I was thankful. If I were human, it would have brought me a concussion. Bear endurance was something.

Right beside me, Marco was giving his all in slamming his gorilla fists into the steel door.

Neither of us were doing much damage. At this rate, we might all end up dead. Can't allow that, now can we?

An idea appeared in my head. _Teamwork._

I said. /Marco, on three we ram this thing down! Got it?\

He grunted. /Got it, Xena.\

/One!\ We backed away from the wall to allow as much force as possible.

/Two!\ I bent my head, ready to charge. Marco seemed agitated to take off already but he held himself for the last moment.

/THREE!\ We broke, going all out towards the steel door. As we made contact, I felt the whole room tremble and shake like a major earthquake. There was a deep dent in the door. Perhaps another ram would bring it down?

/Yah-hah! That was good!\ I cheered triumphantly. /Again, again!\ I reminded myself of those Teletubbies after the video on their tummies had ended.

We backed away once again.

/One, two, THREE!\ We rushed forward once again, hitting the door as hard as we could. Behind us, we heard a loud, painful whimper.

I heard Jake yell. /Cassie! Cassie!\

I glanced back. A wolf was sprawled on the floor, struggling to get up. A long, deep gash ran along her side. The Visser must have gotten her, and he was still proceeding toward her to finish her off. Jake growled loudly and lunged into the side of the Visser. A flash of blue and Jake was knocked to the ground, skidding. Thank god it was only the flat of his blade. His care for Cassie must have made Jake reckless.

/Jake!\ I called. /Be careful! Don't get yourself killed!\

I saw Jake hesitate as he thought things over in a hurry. The Visser was still heading towards Cassie.

_Clank._ The device slid across the floor, towards me and Marco. My bear eyes just barely made out a image of Ax recovering from the kick that sent the time traveller towards us. He went to assist Jake and Cassie.

I bent down to pick it up. It fumbled in my bear paws. I growled. /Marco, get that for me.\

He got his gorilla hands and picked the time travelling device up with ease. /Easy peesy.\ I imagined the grin on his face then felt a twinge of irritation.

_Sleeeech._ The screech of blade against blade. The Visser and Ax were fighting each other.

Off to the side, Jake was nudging Cassie delicately with his snout./Demorph, Cassie! Demorph, please. Hurry!\ He tossed his head to one side and looked straight at me and begged./RACHEL! Take her behind the boxes. She can't be dead. Make her demorph.\ There was distress in his voice. Obvious distress.

I lumbered toward them. Picking Cassie's wolf form up in my paws, it made her seem like a doll compared to me. Jake took one final glance at Cassie's closed eyes before returning to the battle to help Ax.

I took her behind the boxes and settled down. /Come on, Cassie. Change back now. You're safe from the Visser's view. Come on, girl. Demorph for us. Demorph for you. Save yourself.\

There was no change.

I panicked./Cassie! Listen, demorph! Now! Do it for Jake!\

Jake's voice appeared in our heads. /Come on, Cassie. Don't die on me!\

A dreadful pause. Then I saw her fur sinking back into her body.

I felt delight. /She's doing it!\

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jake pounce at the Visser with more heart than before.

I watched Cassie return to human form. She was breathing heavily. A word escaped her gasping lips,"Ouch..."

/Don't worry.\ I comforted the best I could. /You did it, Cassie. Rest for now. Get ready to go soon. We're just gonna finishing taking care of this darn Vis-\

**CRASH! **The steel door knocked down. But it went the wrong way. Marco came rolling backwards as useless as a tumble weed. At the ruined door, an army of about 15 Hork-Bajir arrived.

/No...!\ Marco groaned.

I snarled. /More trouble. Let's do this! Rest, Cassie. Then come in whenever you want.\

I left her behind the boxes and brought my grizzly legs running toward the Hork-Bajir. I roared loudly in their faces and drool slid down my muzzle. I launched myself at one, knocking two others behind it. Slashing and biting, I ruined the alien's body and face. It screeched in agony as I gave it wounds beyond repair.

Marco came, slamming his fists into the heads of Hork-Bajir. They were instantly knocked out.

The remaining Hork-Bajir did their best to slash at us.

_Swiiip_. _Swiiiip._ Green blades soared in the air all around us. Some more or less accurate than the others.

/You IDIOTS!\ The Visser roared in the midst of the battle. /Go after the device! Forget the Andalites and get the device! It's more important than anything else! GO!\

/Marco?!\ I shouted when I saw he wasn't holding the time traveller. /WHERE IS IT?!\

/Cassie.\ He replied simply as he continued clobbering the Hork-Bajir. He was annoying calm when I had just stressed myself.

I took a quick glance at Cassie as she held the device between her wolf jaws. She dashed out the wrecked door, taking the device with her.

/That's my girl.\ I said. Proud and relieved that she had taken it out of here so quickly.

I felt a sharp prick as a blade sliced me. I turned back to the crowd of Hork-Bajir. Some had left to go towards the steel door. I ran towards them, but Jake beat me to it. He snapped at them and growled ferociously. I teamed up with him and blocked the way.

/We're out in a few minutes, everyone.\ Jake ordered. /Corner them to the farthest wall you can get, then run for it!\

I lunged at the crowd gathered in front of us, causing them to lurch back. Swiping my paw threatening in front of their faces was rewarded with another step back. _Cowards._ Soon, they were backed up nearly to the wall but not quite touching it. I decided it was enough before they realized what we were up to.  
I hauled butt out of there, followed by a limping Ax, a bloody Jake, and a tired Marco. I probably looked as bad as them.

I instantly found Cassie's wolf scent. /This way, this way!\ I ran down the corridor. We could hear the shouts and roars behind us. Of Hork-Bajir and the Visser. We had to hurry.

We turned the corner and were confronted by about four Taxxons. Not much. Ax got rid of them quite easily with a quick swipe of his tail. They were probably just guards. Lousy guards.

Soon, we saw light at the end of the corridor. It wasn't the same way as when we had came in. Apparently, there were several entrances and exits.

Ax started morphing into his northern harrier while he galloped toward the end of the corridor. We didn't want to risk any non-Controllers to see him in alien form and the morphing also repaired his injuries. Without a doubt, the Yeerks won't be heading out into the area. They didn't have the ability to morph to human or animals.  
We finally reached the end of the corridor.

The light blinded us, momentarily.

**Tobias:**

After several moments of waiting, I finally saw Cassie appear. She had something strange in her mouth. She dashed into the shelter of the trees.

/What is that?\

/Time travel device.\ She answered.

/So it was time travel?\ I asked, incredulously.

She nodded tiredly. She hid behind a tree and collapsed. She probably had to go through tons of morphs at the looks of it. Even an _estreen_ like her could be tired after many multiple morphs. I probably won't find out the exact details of the battle anytime soon. I hardly ever do and I'm not sure if I do want to find out. I watched as she slowly regained her human form.

Her snout was replaced with human lips and nose. The fur disintegrated into her body. Her tail slurped into her behind and she got her fingers and toes back. Her knees made a sickenly crunch as it reversed itself to its original form. She sat up against a tree, leaned her head back, and closed her eyes. She looked exhausted.

I let her rest.

Moments later, a band of animals arrived from the same direction Cassie had came from. A grizzly bear led the way with her talented nose.

/Cassie! Tobias!\ Rachel called.

/Right here.\ I said. /Cassie's tired. What happened in there?\

/Visser Three.\ Jake said simply. It was enough to explain everything. Even though we had Ax, an experienced Andalite invested by a Yeerk could be hard to take on. Not to mention even more difficult if there was back up.

I fluttered up into the trees to take a look. From the tunnel they had came from, stood the Visser. His eyes were dangerous as he scanned the area. We were all hidden, but my hawk eyes could still see him while he couldn't see us. He had weak Andalite eyes that were nothing compared to mine. I had a close up of him, as if he was standing right in front of me.A curse screwed into our heads. He didn't care who heard. /You won't get away with this! I will get that device back and destroy you once and for all. Enjoy your last moments. You won't know what got you when you suddenly disappear from reality./

He took one last scan then disappeared into the tunnel.

Everyone began demorphing, except Ax and me. Once everyone was human, they paused tiredly before going bird morph.

/Let's get out of here.\ Jake said.

I took a glance around. /Clear. No Controllers.\ We took off towards the sky. Rachel held the device in her talons. It looked surprisingly light and small for something that had the dangerous power of time travel.

When we arrived back at the barn, everyone demorphed. Ax remained in Andalite form. Cassie's mom had went to The Gardens and Cassie's dad had a meeting while we went away. Rachel placed the device on a table and we gathered around to take a look.

It was silver and shiny with many rows of different colored buttons. On the side, it had a single, tiny lever. The device was rectangular, like a walkie-talkie. It had a screen on top and if I hadn't know better I would have thought it was suited for watching videos. Basically, it looked almost like human technology but of course we knew better.

/Don't touch it.\ Ax warned.

"Thank you, Mr. Obvious," Marco retorted with a roll of his eyes.

Jake questioned,"Ax, do you know how this thing works?"

/My apologies, Prince Jake. Back in my home planet, I've never held one of these in my hands. They are limited and kept in tough security. You have to be a very high rank to touch one and an even higher rank to operate it. The schools had strict rules of not mentioning the device during lessons. Highly prohibited to talk about, in case any of us developed ideas to use one falsely.\

Rachel asked,"Got any guesses on how it works?"

/I believe if this device is from the Andalite planet then it should operate in a way roughly the same as anything else we've created. Blue should be the 'on' button, as you humans refer to it. Green should be off. The red lever has a high chance of being the trigger to press once you have finished inserting the time you want to go to.\

Marco nodded. "Okay. That's a start. Now, who's going to press it?"

We stared silently at each other.

Jake took his finger and hovered over the only red button. Then he pressed it. There was a silent second when we thought it was broken until the screen lit up and came to life.

A robotic voice sounded in our heads. /Darrath Tiempus Dalin.\

/I'm guessing that's the inventor and the name of the machine?\ I said.

Then it started beeping.

"A bomb!?" Marco screeched, taking a comical step back with his arms spread out in from of him.

/A code.\ Ax explained.

Cassie said,"Like Morse Code?"

/Yes, only it is an Andalite version.\

Jake asked,"Can you translate it for us?"

/I don't specialize in old Andalite language but I think I caught something along the lines of 'enter' and 'time'. Perhaps it means to type in the date you want to travel to?\

"But we don't know what the buttons mean." Rachel reasoned. "There's not a single word on the buttons to indicate what they are."

Ax picked the device up. He studied it before pressing a button. Then he set it back down on the table. The buttons were now lit up, with symbols on them.

/That should do.\ Ax said, satisfied.

"Um...Ax?" Marco said. "What do those symbols mean?"

Ax replied./Old Andalite numbers and letters.\

/Can you read them?\ I asked.

/Yes. Some. It should be enough to operate the device.\ Ax replied.

Rachel grinned. "Well, let's get this baby up and running."

/We're actually going to use it?\ I asked.

"Why not?" Rachel countered. "It'll be fun won't it?"

Ax said in a grave tone. /You must keep in mind that we may never return to the present ever again. I am not sure if Andalites have perfected this device. There may still be some faults. And even if there were no faults, there is a high chance of one of you not being born. Or even the alter of the present. It may even lead to a faster infestation of human hosts.\

Rachel argued,"Well, since we're going to the past we can do the opposite. We can actually slow down the invasion even more. How hard can it be to keep everything good in its place and only affect the things that we want to affect? We can even have another chance to save Tom."

Rachel fell silent knowing that she probably shouldn't have mentioned of Tom. We knew Jake must be remembering our failed attempts at saving his brother from the Yeerk Pool.

Cassie said softly as she stared at her boots,"We can change the way we went home on that night." She looked up. "We can completely avoid becoming the Animorphs. Avoid all the trouble and murder."

**Marco:**

We all looked at Cassie. Everyone wanted to stop killing, but none of us were going to say anything. It was practically surrendering the battle to the Yeerks.

I'm not completely sure if the others have noticed yet, but I've been silent ever since the conversation of using the machine came up. Yes, I did want to use the machine to somehow get a chance to save my mom from the Yeerks. But I knew it was very risky. I might not come back home, and my dad would lose another family member. I won't be able to live while knowing I had left him all alone. But Andalite technology had always been very advanced. I've never seen an invention from them that had ever had a fault.

Jake thought up of a solution. "We vote. Think for a minute. Make up your minds, then we vote."

The barn went quiet after that. There was an occasional animal sound from the cages, but that's pretty much it.

If the time machine did have a problem, we can always use it to return back here, right? And if we did alter something we didn't want to, we can give it another try by reversing time once again. Like Rachel said, we could slow down the invasion even more. We won't know until we try.

But...there was also the possibility of something going wrong. What if we can't reverse time to fix one of our problems? We can also end up doomed in the past and have to relive everything that we went through – tests, homework. And lots of things would seem like de-ja-vus. Time travel was never easy. It always gave me a headache when I tried to make sense of it. It always had many different ways of happening.

I was torn between the choices!

/A minute has passed.\ Ax, our friend with the internal clock, announced. At the moment, I disliked him. His time was crazy accurate. I wished he had added an extra minute to the thinking time or maybe even more.

"I say lets do it!" Take a wild guess at who that is. She's tall, blond and none other than Xena: Warrior Princess. AKA Rachel. Nothing less expected from her.

/Sorry, Rach.\ Tobias apologized. /I'm against this. I like the way things are right now. It's not exactly the best, but I can live with it. Who knows what will happen if we mess up the time travel?\

/I agree with Tobias. Many things can go wrong with travelling through time. You must be aware of that!\ Ax declared.

"I'm for." Cassie said. "It's our chance to fix everything that we've done wrong. Since we know our mistakes, we can use them at our advantage."

Jake looked at me,"Your turn, Marco. I'm not having a say in this. I'm neutral."

I gaped. I wasn't ready. "That's not fair! You have to vote." I was sure I said that only to buy time because I knew. I knew once Jake made his mind, it'll be hard to change it. He was a determined person.

Jake shook his head. "Sorry. Look at it this way, if I vote, it'll come out tied."

Cassie agreed,"Which would completely defeat the purpose of even having this voting session."

"Who's side are you on, Ms. I'm Everyone's Friend?" I growled, wanting to divert the attention, change the topic, and release my distress all at the same time. "Look, I don't know, okay? I can't make up my mind."

Cassie said soothingly despite the way I had snapped at her. "Take your time and think. We'll wait."

I didn't like the way she was talking. It reminded me of how you would talk to a crying baby.

"Fine. I'm for." I decided. It was out of mouth before I had a chance to think. I groaned to myself. My guy instinct always did something like this. Make myself feel childish and then feel like I had to prove myself strong to the others. Even if it's completely insane.

Jake clamped his hands together. "Alright then. That's two no's and three yes's. We're doing this. Uh...but the question now is, what time are we going to?"

**Author's Note:** Okay, that's it for this chapter! Please review. Press the pretty little button on the bottom, left-hand corner and tell me what you think.


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